


You're The One That Makes Me Come Running

by Krasimer



Series: For Many Years We've Been All Alone [3]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: AU, Alternate History, And like Bonnie and Freddy, F/F, They demanded a good relationship, Toy Chica and The Mangle are fluffy and cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 04:05:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3595692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Michelle was given the opportunity to bring back Toy Chica, she took it. </p><p> </p><p>(Picks up from where the non-child-murder part left off.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're The One That Makes Me Come Running

~A_~_S_~_~_L_~_O_~_N_~_G_~_~_A_~_S_~_~_Y_~_O_~_U_~_~_S_~_U_~_R_~_V_~_I_~_V_~_E~

Michelle grunted as she shifted boxes aside, the tool belt on her hips digging into her thigh. 

In front of her, labeled carefully, almost obsessively now that she was the one labelling things, was a box that she knew contained the old body of Reyna. Despite the label on the outside, she still opened the crate up, peeking in at the empty eyes and the pink ear that stuck up.

The other endoskeleton peered back at her, the lights of it's eyes just as dark.

"So," she muttered, swallowing against the sudden clutch of fear in her throat. "Golden Freddy. Why am I not surprised? Jeremy seemed to favor using you as a method of murder." she hauled the crate into her arms, then turned back to face Reyna. "Take this for a moment?"

"Do you want me to carry it out of here entirely?" Reyna asked, eyes wide.

Michelle thought about it for a moment, reaching for the next crate. "I kind of want you to cart this one out of here. Since it's the full body of her, and she was never dismantled, I can't exactly do it on my own. I mean, sure, they were made shorter than the other guys were, but I still can't carry her on my own."

"Right, sorry, sorry." Reyna set the crate containing her old body down near the door, out of the way, then stepped forward and took the other one from Michelle. She paused for a moment, a hand over where Chica's face would have been. "I've missed her so much." she whispered as she moved out the door, holding it open with one foot as she waited for Michelle to exit the room with her own burden.

"Well, I've got a new body for her." Michelle breathed deeply as she set the box down next to her office door. "But you remember what happened with Felix, right? I didn't transfer him until I was sure that he wouldn't-"

"I remember." Reyna whispered, setting the crate inside the office.

Michelle flipped on the lights, then picked the smaller crate up again. "I just wanted you to know. I also wanted you to know that I'm not going to give up on her, not even if she's at risk of crashing completely. I'll find some way of fixing it, alright?"

Reyna nodded, prying the crate open and pulling Chica out of it. "We were called the toy versions." she sighed, rubbing a finger through the dust that had collected on the animatronic over the years. "Unlike with the others, I was the first of us. Not Freddy, for our group. I think they didn't want to risk using him in case something messed up, and whoever they made a new version of didn't work right."

"So you were the first of the toy versions." Michelle glanced at her, booting up her computer and the newly updated version of the software that her father had sent her. "Do you know why Felix had the first version of the criminal recognition database?"

"He was the first one to get it." Reyna finally looked at Michelle, her pink eyes wide. "He was the first to be made with it. When they made him and it worked, they redesigned so that there would be us, the kid friendly brightly colored ones. Had to have some reason for people to go to the new branch instead of just the old one."

"Makes sense." Michelle clicked her tongue against her teeth, frowning as she hooked Chica up to the computer. "What doesn't make sense, however, is why there's an encryption in here. Can't read the files, can't even get to them."

"Why doesn't that make sense?" Reyna tilted her head, frowning as well. "If there's a police database, it should be made so that not just anyone can read through it."

Michelle shook her head, negating the idea as soon as the words were out of Reyna's mouth. "I was able to get into Felix's head just fine. I should be able to get into Chica's." she gestured at the screen, biting the inside of her lip. "It's the same files, it's the same sort of thing, I just can't access it."

"Is it because it's a newer version?"

With a raised hand, her other in her hair, Michelle sighed. "Good thought, but I don't think so. You said they were malfunctioning, right? Maybe it's her system trying to save itself. Maybe it locked itself down so that nothing else would happen to it, like it was creating a restore point...Like backing up an entire computer system, just less useful."

Before Reyna could say anything, Michelle sighed. "I need you to bring Felix here. I think I need to look into his programming again, see what the difference is, see if there's anything similar. I also need the version of Chica that isn't this one."

Reyna hesitated, trailing a hand over the plasticized cheek of the non-responsive animatronic, then walked slowly out of the room, her other hand pressed tightly over her mouth. The glass stones that lined the edge of her skirt shimmered in the light as she swept out the door, small rainbows flashing across the room and across Chica's face. 

Tapping around on her computer, Michelle sighed again, hiding her face in her hands. "Goddammit, if I ever meet the person who programmed you lot, I am going to possibly beat his face in."

"...Michelle?"

Looking up, she smiled at Chica. The blonde hair that she had chosen to have cropped in an inverted bob, one part of it that stuck up no matter how many times Michelle had rearranged it, was brushed out of her face. The green eyes that went with it were wide, startled and worried. "Sorry, just worried about something."

"About what?" Chica came further into the room, looking at the other version of herself. "Is something wrong? I already gave you permission to bring her back, what's happening?"

Michelle hugged her, pulling her close enough to press her forehead into the android's shoulder. "The other version of you is having some issues. Not sure what's happening with it, but she's stuck behind an encryption and I can't quite bust it. Had Reyna go off to find Felix, wanted to see if it were somehow connected to what was going on with him."

Someone cleared their throat.

Michelle looked up slowly, smiling when she saw the three at the door. Felix, with his overly round eyes, stood next to Reyna, hand in hand with the other pirate. Behind them stood Brianna, who had a hand over her mouth, hiding a smile.

"So," Felix tilted his head, eyes focusing somewhere on the wall behind Michelle and the two Chica's. "My brain is causing problems again?"

"No, no no no." Michelle strode across the room to hug him too. "Oh no, that's completely not it, sweetheart. The thing that happened when I went to switch you over, there's a couple of similar elements to what's going on with the other Chica, from what I can see anyways."

"Alright." Felix hummed, twisting his fingers together.

"You remember what to do, right?" Michelle gestured at the sturdy table that sat next to her desk, a hand still on his shoulder. "I need to hook you into the machine, and it'll be far more comfortable if you're sitting. For both of us, actually." she grinned at him when he nodded again, then followed him back across the room.

He tucked himself into a hunched up ball on the tabletop, fingers gripping the edge tightly. "If he's all available, could someone get Isaac?" he whispered.

"Felix?" Chica moved to stand next to him, eyes wide in concern.

"I'm scared." he hissed the words out, jaw clenching tightly, teeth pressed together so hard that they might have shattered if he hadn't let go after a few seconds. 

"Here," Michelle set her equipment down, taking one of Felix's hands and winding her fingers through his. "I'll hold off until we have Isaac in here." she turned to her girlfriend. "Bri?"

Brianna smiled reassuringly. "Reyna already headed out to grab him. They're only performing the bit about accepting Edward into the crew, Isaac won't be missed for at least an hour." she walked further into the room, plopping herself on the table next to Felix and resting her cheek against his shoulder. "He'll be here soon, alright?"

As if he'd been cued, Isaac came rushing in, his costume still on and his eyes as wide as they could go. 

Immediately, Brianna and Chica stepped back, letting the former wolf stand next to his partner. Isaac pressed close to Felix, his hands on the other pirate's shoulders and pulling him chest to chest. "I'm here." he muttered, stroking gently at Felix's hair. "I'm right here. You'll be okay." He nodded at Chica as she left the room, leaving the door open.

Felix tucked his nose into Isaac's shoulder, not saying anything.

Michelle hugged them both, then turned back to the computer. "Can I start now?" she asked quietly, waiting for them to answer before she moved anything.

"Yeah." Felix answered shakily, then paused, pulling his head from Isaac's shoulder. When he spoke again, his voice was stronger, a deep vent of heated air from his inner workings. "Yes." he prodded Isaac to sit next to him, and the wolf did so gladly, an arm around the frog's waist.

Michelle plugged him in, a fond hand running over the back of his head as she did. 

The computer beeped at her, a somehow displeased sound, as she opened the files, laying them out alongside the ones that she couldn't access in toy Chica's head. "As far as I can tell," she muttered, cracking her knuckles slowly against the edge of the desk. "She's got an encryption and firewalls and mismatched programming that's leading her entire system to try to constantly reboot."

"Can you fix it?" Reyna asked from the door, arms crossed protectively over her chest.

Looking up at her, Michelle sighed. "I will do my best. This reeks of the damn messing that was done with Felix. Like someone went in and deleted an entire section of code. I think that her personality is still there, but- SHIT!" she shrieked as she shot back from the computer.

On screen was a bloody Freddy head with gold fur, the area around the nose and mouth completely saturated. It's jaw was flapping, as if it were trying to talk, and the noise coming out of the speakers was something that all of them could recognize, the noise having been described by Mike as many times as they could get him to talk about it.

The tone of it was not recognizable.

The screams of the ghost children, now a full decade at rest, had never been quite as angry sounding as the noise that now poured from the speakers. Even with the hatred for Orsani coming to a head, they had never been as furious as what the group of them heard now.

Brianna slapped her hands over her ears, eyes closed tightly. "What the hell?" she hissed, grimacing as the sound spiked up, as if it were trying to drown out her voice.

"I don't know!" Michelle's voice was halfway to panic, her entire body tense against the intrusion of sound. Her hands were clutching at her head, pulling at her hair in a way that looked painful. Every time she made a move towards the computer, the noise became angry static, unpleasant in a way that could never be described as white noise. As the noise bounced around the room, Isaac went stiff and fell off the table, hitting the ground with a thud.

Felix, still plugged into the machine, made a soft whimpering sound, hands searching for Isaac.

The other version of Chica was still plugged in as well, and her entire body was jolting, metal and plastic slamming against the wall as she moved. Her beak opened and the sound came from there as well, amplified by the structure in her chest.

The door to Michelle's office, left open on purpose, in the event of the 'just in case', echoed in the already cacophanous room as it closed by itself.

"Shut it down!" Isaac screeched, finally managing to get back on his feet and take Felix's hands. "For fuck's sake, shut it down! It's going to kill him!" his eyes were wide, and his mouth was open, venting heat at a rate that worried Michelle. 

He was shaking, and it took Michelle a moment to realize that Felix was the one shaking, that Isaac was just holding on. With a gasp, desperate for fresh air in the stiflingly hot room, Michelle struggled to her feet, throwing herself at the base of her desk. The noise rose again, a pitch so high that it hurt her ears and made Brianna cry out, but she kept moving. 

Eventually she reached the keyboard, typing something in. The click of the keys was swallowed by the screams of the ghosts, and with a screwed up face and a muttered prayer, Michelle hit enter.

The noise stopped.

Her computer's fans started running again, the soft whirr of them reassuring beyond reason. With a deep breath, she typed something else, then looked at Felix. "Are you alright?" she asked, breathing heavily as she dropped to her knees on the carpet, forehead drenched in sweat and arms shaking. 

Felix blinked, head tilting to the side. A soft motor roared to life in his chest, and he turned to her. "I remember." he whispered, sitting up straight. When Reyna rushed over, checking on the humans and pointedly ignoring the empty animatronic, he took her hand and smiled at her. "We should have notified someone the moment he showed up in the system." he let go of her, leaning into Isaac's side, letting the other scratch at his scalp. "It should never have gotten to where it did, he should never have been allowed to do what he did."

"What exactly just happened?" Brianna asked breathlessly, collapsing against Michelle, her hands on the bigger girl's hips. 

"The ghosts that he created at the other branch," Felix shrugged. "Over time, they managed to become data, sections of code that hitched a ride in Chica's system. Don't know how, but I know they did." he cleared his throat, eyes focused and clear for the first time since his first awakening after being altered. "Reyna, could you go grab Freddy, if he's free?"

She nodded, scurrying off as soon as the sentence was completely out of his mouth.

Waiting until she was gone, watching her go, Felix turned back to Michelle. "I think I know how to fix the other Chica. There's a lot of holes in her programming, and her memory banks are completely sound. If you could boot her back up and transfer her over, she'd be fine. As it is, she's restarting every few seconds. What you need to do is patch over the basic programming from our Chica, set it into place and make sure there's no more holes." he gestured at the computer. "She'll be right as rain, complete once more. Her personality and everything is still in there, she's still there."

"Just her basics aren't." Michelle finished.

"Precisely." Felix nodded once, then grinned. "Basic programming isn't what makes us people. It's what gives us walking and movement and the ability to stay online. Delete a chunk of that, you get constant crashes and a system that's built to try and save itself."

Michelle frowned, looking at him skeptically. "...How did you get fixed?"

"I don't rightly know," he shrugged again. "I think we might even be better off not knowing."

"So why did you send Reyna out?" Michelle took Brianna's hand in her own, standing slowly. "Shouldn't she be here and also know that her girlfriend is going to be okay? Or did you want it to be a surprise?"

"I sent her out for a few reasons." Felix stood as well, his entire posture changed from how it had been before. His shoulders weren't slumped anymore, and his back was ramrod straight. "The first is that we actually do need Freddy in here. He should be informed that his brother popped up. The second is that the chances of this going wrong, even under your skilled hands and careful watch, are high enough that I do not want to get her hopes up and then dash them like an egg against concrete."

Brianna giggled. "You've gotten kind of-"

"I believe that I would use the term 'loquacious' here, but that others have used less savory language to describe me." Felix tucked his hair behind his ear, bright green eyes twinkling in the light. "And it is less that I have become so and more that I have rediscovered myself."

Isaac watched his every move, looking less like a wolf-turned-pirate and more like a lovestruck puppy. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I am perfectly well." Felix assured him. "Would someone mind unplugging me?"

Before Michelle could, Isaac leaned up and pulled the cord carefully out of Felix's head, caressing the android's cheek and neck with his other hand. When it was loose, he leaned up, pressing the bridge of his nose against the back of Felix's neck. Felix, in the middle of brushing himself off, paused with his hands on his midsection.

Isaac's hands soon joined them, and he pulled backwards until he was sitting in Isaac's lap. With a soft growl, a remnant of his former shape, he grazed his teeth over the spot the jugular would have been in if Felix had been human.

"This kind of brings up a few questions." Michelle whispered to Brianna. "But I think I'm going to leave the room for now, talk to Freddy outside of the door, and let these two have a bit of space." When Brianna nodded, the two of them quietly walked out. Michelle looked back for a moment, checking on toy Chica one last time, and caught sight of Isaac's hand sliding up Felix's back, underneath his shirt.

She walked faster after that.

 

~A_~_S_~_~_L_~_O_~_N_~_G_~_~_A_~_S_~_~_Y_~_O_~_U_~_~_E_~_X_~_I_~_S_~_T_~

 

"You're saying that she can be brought back?" Freddy blinked slowly at Michelle, then closed his eyes and put his fingers to his temples.

Bonnie's face lit up and they smiled as they put an arm around Freddy and nuzzled their cheek into his shoulder. "My grumpy bear..." they whispered. "We're gonna have everyone back and awake at this rate." Turning to Michelle, they bit their bottom lip. "Do you have a body for her?"

"I do, yeah." she rubbed at the back of her neck sheepishly. "Foxy brought the idea to me about two months ago. It was also mentioned that the second endoskeleton attached to Reyna's body might be Golden Freddy as he was in the second branch. Reyna's memories cut out occasionally, like the systems were trying to balance two sentient A.I's and give them each some time to function." 

Freddy sighed, looking up to meet Michelle's eyes. "Well," he began, lips pursed and brow furrowed. "Do what you can. If it turns out that you can't bring the other Chica back, then we turn away from it and simply put their bodies away in storage and never..." he winced. "That sounded awful."

"I got what you meant." Michelle assured him. With a small smile on her face, she hugged him. "If I can, I will."

"You seem to be set to God mode." Bonnie giggled. "No one is too damaged for you to fix and no one is too far gone to be set right. I'm a little surprised that we are even here right now. I thought for sure that we were at the end of everything more than a decade ago when the restaurant was being shut down."

"And then we got Mike and he refused to let go." Freddy smiled for the first time since Michelle walked into the office with the news of Toy Chica. "And I am so very glad that he didn't let us be hidden away."

"I never did get the story of how he found the bodies in the walls." Michelle tilted her head. "I mean, I know the little girl ghost part, and I know that he got the police involved and I left my tool belt behind when they quarantined the building for two weeks so I couldn't get it back, but..."

Freddy laughed. "He waited until the middle of his shift, after Orsani tried to find him and kill him for the first time, and then he took the fire axe from the office and went running for the stage while we were all possessed and wanting to kill him." he paused, then turned to look at some of the pictures on the wall. They were group pictures, all the workers who had ever worked at Fazbear entertainment that had been photographed. "I had to dig the key that Dota wears out of the wall. It belonged to the little girl that helped Mike."

"And now Mike is an android shell." Michelle closed her eyes. "Can't help thinking that maybe he was meant for so much more."

"I think we all were," Bonnie shrugged their shoulders. "Because I still don't understand why Fazbear's commissioned sentient animatronics, a good portion of them with facial recognition."

Michelle stretched her neck out, angling it until she heard cracks on all angles. "I think that if I manage to boot up Golden Freddy's Endoskeleton, I might have some more answers for you." 

 

~A_~_S_~_~_L_~_O_~_N_~_G_~_~_A_~_S_~_~_Y_~_O_~_U_~_~_E_~_X_~_I_~_S_~_T_~

 

With a tired groan, Michelle looked at the clock. 

"Y'know, you are the only human still left in this building. You know that, right?" Mike's almost amused comment floated into her office from the hall, and she turned to look at him with a smirk. 

"I know. Maybe, however, I'm not human. You don't know, I might have uploaded myself into an android body." she watched as his face fell, eyebrows meeting in the middle as he tried to figure out if she was joking or not. "Oh, don't panic, Mike. I'm still flesh and blood, I haven't been uploaded anywhere yet. As far as I know anyways."

He watched her for a minute, arms crossed over his chest as he rested his butt on her desk. With a frown, she nudged him off, hooking her foot around a chair and pulling it over until he fell into it.

"I wish people would stop sitting on my desk." she grumbled. 

"You've been working on this for over a week now," Mike's voice was soft when he spoke again, his arms still crossed and his face still drawn in confusion and worry. "I've never known you to not be able to fix something. It's always been so easy for you to-" his voice cut out and he shrugged. "Michelle, I just don't want you to burn yourself out for something that's been impossible for about thirty years now."

Michelle met his eyes, smiling. "Mike, what year is it?"

"...Two thousand and nine. Why?" he sat up straight in the chair, searching her face. "Please tell me that you remembered that."

"I did. Just wanted to make a point." she stretched her arms above her head, her spine popping. "You've known me for over a decade now, Mike Schmidt. How often have I given up? We met in ninety-seven. Twelve years, you little shit." she took a deep breath. "In twelve years, how many times have you seen me give up on something?"

Mike smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I saw you give up on five star food."

"Oh, dude, fuck you." Michelle laughed. "Five stars on a chinese dish? That shit burns when it goes in, it burns when it comes out, and nothing about it is good."

Another few minutes passed, the silence in between them comforting rather than awkward. 

"Besides," she whispered, facing her computer and the animatronic body hooked up to it. "I was asked to bring someone's loved one back. I can't walk away from that. It's like if someone gave me the choice to have or not have Bri in my life." 

On screen, file names flashed so quickly that they were blurs of letters, incomprehensible and nonsensical. 

"I can't just leave them separated for forever."

Mike studied her face, smiling at the lines around her mouth that were growing deeper with the years that had passed since he met her. There were the first few streaks of silver at her temples, despite her only being thirty-six. "I just don't want you to spend the rest of your life in front of the computer screens that create the lives of others."

"Mike, I just-"

The computer beeped, an insistent noise that demanded attention.

 

~A_~_S_~_~_L_~_O_~_N_~_G_~_~_A_~_S_~_~_Y_~_O_~_U_~_~_E_~_X_~_I_~_S_~_T_~

 

It was a fairly cold day when it happened.

It was one of the days that the restaurant was closed. With the advent of job security and a union of sorts put into place within the business, the employees had been asked what days they wanted off, and almost unanimously, Mondays had been chosen.

The androids, having little interest in being away now that they had the chance, were all gathered in the main dining area.

"Mike?" Reyna asked softly, her hands clasped in front of her. "Why did Michelle ask me specifically to be here? Not that I would have been elsewhere, it's just sort of unusual for her to ask specifically- I'm probably not making any sense, I'm sorry."

"No, you're fine." Mike assured her, a hand on her shoulder. "Just wait."

Michelle entered the room, looking over her shoulder and whispering something to someone in the hallway behind her. "Well, Reyna," she answered the pirate, having caught the question. "I asked you be here because someone has missed you for so very long. I think you missed them too."

She gestured something, and the person she had been talking to stepped into the room. 

Reyna watched closely, and everyone watched her, waiting for her reaction. It wasn't until Chica put her hands over her mouth that Reyna understood, her chest heaving as she vented heat. "I-" she stuttered, stepping forward on unsteady legs. "You-"

"Hello lovely." the woman spoke.

With a gasp, Reyna threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around the new arrival.

"I walked away and grew older." Reyna began, her eyes wide as she ghosted her fingers over Chica's face, feeling the curve of her cheeks underneath her fingertips. "I'm so sorry. I am so sorry about leaving you behind. I am so sorry. I-" she cut off, her voice dragging into a harsh sob. "I-"

"Shhh," Other-Chica soothed, shooting a quick glance at what was, for all intents and purposes, her twin. She dragged her hands through Reyna's hair, pulling the pirate's head to rest on her shoulder.

As far as the shape of them, the two Chica's were almost identical. Their hips were solidly built, a thick curve to them that made them look good in the clothes that Brianna had bought for them. The version of Chica that had been the toy version, however, was more of a dusty blonde, her eyes a deep and expressive blue. They both had constellations of freckles across their faces and arms.

Reyna dug her fingers into her Chica's arms. If they had been able to bleed, she would have drawn pinpricks of blood from each spot that her claws rested.

"So, what is happening as far as names go?" Mike asked quietly, as if he were attempting to defeat the awkwardness of the silence. "It doesn't really work if we call for one Chica and get both of them." he gestured at the two of them, one on her knees on the floor with the former mangle of parts that had taken her place on Foxy's crew once more. The other stood back, her hands clasped together in front of her. 

"Call me Irasa, then." the second Chica whispered, playing with the pinkish-red hair that tumbled in wild curls from Reyna's head. "Irasa and Reyna. I was going to ask to be called that, and then we got shut down and shoved away."

Reyna sobbed again, her hands shifting to rest on Irasa's back, tugging the blonde closer. "Missed you. Missed you so-" the words choked off in a sob. "So much."

Irasa twirled some of the curls of hair around her fingers, tugging gently. "Missed you too." she stretched her jaw experimentally, then nodded in satisfaction, tilting Reyna up to face her, sealing their lips together. Catching on quickly, Reyna took the lead, her hands coming up to grasp both sides of Irasa's head.

"Alright, we're goin'!" Foxy called, scooping Mike into his arms and walk off. 

After a few seconds, the rest followed. Freddy went last, smiling at the two and following quickly after Bonnie. "Good luck, you two." he murmured, leaning down to nuzzle Bonnie's neck, wrapping a hand around their waist. He pulled them closer, until their hips bumped together, then closed the door behind them.

Irasa laughed as she pulled back, her smile bright. "Reyna?"

The former fox looked up at her, then focused on a point somewhere across the room. "I'm sorry."

"Why do you keep apologizing?" Irasa caught hold of her chin, forcing her to make eye contact. "I can't think of anything you need to apologize for. Unless you did something to me while I was sleeping- Did you draw something on my face? Or did you take my beak?"

"I did something worse!" Reyna sobbed, covering her face. 

Shaking her head, Irasa pulled her close again. "From what I heard, and from the memories they patched into my head from Chica, you managed to hold out on bringing me back until the tech caught up to the problem. If I'd been brought back any earlier, I might not have survived."

Reyna opened her mouth to protest, only to have Irasa put a finger over her lips. "Nope. Mechanic explained things to me, you don't get to blame yourself."

"I-"

"Nope!" Irasa squeaked the word out, flexing her hand and tangling her fingers back in the mass of pink-toned curls. "Fingers are interesting. I mean, I could pick stuff up before, and I did sort of have them, but I just- Fingers are weird and interesting and I can do this with them!" she set about putting small braids into the ends of Reyna's hair. 

With a soft grin spreading across her face, Reyna leaned closer, shortening the distance between the two of them. "Like I would have taken your beak. You took it off yourself, plenty of times."

"I did, yeah." Irasa chuckled, the expression on her face settling into something a bit more somber. "I am so glad you didn't bring me back any earlier. They would have had control, and I don't know what would have happened. From what I've heard, it wouldn't have been anything good."

Reyna leaned over and kissed her cheek. "The ghosts that were here killed so many guards that there's an entire section of the memorial wall dedicated to them."

"And those ones had the opportunity to run around and settle a bit." Irasa reminded her, hands falling into her lap and clasping their fingers together. "Think of what would happen if the ones that didn't got to run around now, without a murderer to blame."

They stayed still for a minute, holding on to each other.

"I missed you so much." Reyna whined eventually, pressing Irasa closer and hiding her face in her neck. "I just-"

"You did what was best." 

"I-"

"You did what was right." Irasa pushed her face further into her shoulder. "I am going to spend every day telling you that because it's true and you know it. I know it, you know it, everyone knows it."

Reyna pulled away, meeting her eyes and looking close to tears that she couldn't actually cry. "But-"

"I love you." Irasa interrupted. "And I always will."

"Oh!" Reyna giggled suddenly, covering her mouth with one hand. "I love you too."

**Author's Note:**

> Again, just going to roll with the relationship that popped up out of nowhere.
> 
> Tell me what you think?


End file.
